#asian mc

[alinacapellabooks]

IT'S FINALLY HERE! THE TENGU AND THE ANGEL IS OUT NOW!

Hello, hello, hello, everyone, I have some very exciting news to share with you all! The Tengu And The Angel, my debut novel, is now finally available to buy! That's right, you can now get your very own copy of my fluffy, angsty, gay friends-to-lovers novel! Oh, but why would you want to, you might be asking? What's the book about! Great questions, my friends, and I'll answer them both for you right now!

The Tengu And The Angel is a friends-to-lovers romance about two roommates falling in love, and learning to let go of their pasts. Eighteen year old Kunio Yoshioka has just fled his abusive mother's home in Northampton, and he's journeying up north in search of a new home, and a fresh start in life. He's armed with nothing but his dreams of being a successful artist, and his vivid imagination. He thinks of his new adult self as a tengu; strong, proud, and capable of things his child self could only dream of. Twenty year old Nathaniel seems to have it all; he's gorgeous, he lives in a beautiful apartment in the centre of Newcastle, and he's the owner and founder of Black Rose, a Victorian gothic online boutique. Kunio thinks of him as angel; he's faultlessly polite and kind, and he goes above and beyond to help him when they first meet, even though he doesn't know him. He's also painfully insecure, and he lives under the thumb of his toxic 'best friend', Theo, who uses his mental illness to control him. When Nathaniel takes Kunio in, the two form a close friendship, which slowly blossoms into love. Can the two of them learn to put their pasts behind, and make their relationship work? Well, you're going to have to read it to find out! Get your copy from Rakuten Kobo, or from the Amazon Kindle Store below!

[olivias-shelf]

I really enjoyed this book - a rival business owners to lovers book with two Chinese American main characters who run matchmaking companies? Who get into a bet to find each other love?

Lauren Kung Jessen is great at laying out hints of things to come - nothing came as a surprise to me, but the journey I took with Olivia was satisfying. I especially liked how some of the questionable decisions Olivia made and the misunderstandings between Olivia and Bennett were handled.

The discussions of both our characters being half-Chinese and the questions of identity that come from feeling "not enough" was done really well. I also liked how they bonded over shared struggles as business owners, even though their business were in much different stages.

A thank you to Forever (Grand Central Publishing), Forever, and NetGalley for the ARC.

[queenofasgardreads]

“I felt a keen sense of pride to be related to her-to Joan West. She was my grandmother, yes, but she was more than that, and it seemed inadequate to call her by a name that said nothing about her accomplishments”.

A Scatter of Light by Malinda Lo (page 7)

[booksforthegays]

“Flip the Script” by Lyla Lee

Description: As an avid watcher of K-dramas, Hana knows all the tropes to avoid when she finally lands a starring role in a buzzy new drama. And she can totally handle her fake co-star boyfriend who might be falling in love with her. After all, she promised the producers a contract romance, and that’s all they’re going to get from her. But when showrunners bring on a new girl to challenge Hana’s role as main love interest—and worse, it’s someone Hana knows all too well—can Hana fight for her position on the show while falling for her on-screen rival in real life? Representation: The main character is a bisexual Korean woman with a lesbian love interest. The author is also Korean. Genre: Romance, YA Length: 336 TW(s): Homophobia, bullying

[wahlpaper]

We Are Totally Normal Review

We Are Totally Normal by Naomi Kanakia

CW: Underage Heavy Drinking, Microaggressions, Manipulative Behavior, Depiction of Sex Between Minors, Homophobia, Queer-phobia, Internalized Queer-phobia, Drug Use, Sexism, Ableism, Importance of Social Status, Toxic Masculinity

3.5/5

I discovered this book when looking for Jewish YA books to read next, but I was misled by the faulty algorithm in Google searching. I fell for it because the author's name is Naomi, a common Jewish name. This is not a Jewish book, but it is queer! It certainly wasn't my favorite, and the audiobook had its own problems, but I believe the controversy surrounding it is a bit harsh. I think people were judging the book for the wrong reasons. Yet, I don't believe I would recommend this book to most people.

We Are Totally Normal is about Nandan, a Desi teen in California who is figuring himself out and making mistakes while doing so. He sees the world of high school in a sociological way. The school's elite are "The 99" and everyone has a role in the school and each other's lives. Everyone values different things, which Nadan uses to his advantage. He desires close friendships with the girls in his life, to be seen as indistinguishable from them. He also wants a relationship with Dave, a cute nerdy boy on the fringes of “The 99”. Unfortunately for both Dave and Nandan, Nandan has no idea what his queer identity is or if he even has one.

I was not very far into the book when I realized it wasn't going to be Jewish, so I started looking for reviews online to see if that was true. While there, I discovered that people have some very heated opinions about the book and the characters. This, more than anything, compelled me to read the whole book. I wanted to have my own take added into the mix. Those that have negative feelings towards the book as a whole can be forgiven, but I believe those that took their issues with the characters out on the book are misguided. Many found Nandan to be manipulative, annoying, and not worthy of Dave. They also found the popular girl, Avani, to have no redeeming qualities and that it didn't make sense for Nandan to defend her. I personally don't think that characters have to be good or likable for a book to be well written. I also think that focusing on the faults of a few characters distracted reviewers from the fact that all the characters were flawed (outside of Nandan's mom).

Interviews with the author (linked at the bottom) prove that Kanakia didn't want a clean teen romance. The messiness, uncertainty, and lack of cuteness was intended. I didn't fault We Are Totally Normal for any of these things. However, I still didn't like the book very much. I truly wanted to, but neither the story nor the audiobook were kind to the reader. The audiobook was poorly balanced in terms of sound, especially for a shorter book like this. I struggled to hear Dave and couldn't turn the sound down soon enough for Nandan or his friend Mari. The story felt unresolved in the end and it was difficult to keep some of the characters straight. I also felt that the running gag's pay off was anticlimactic. These are the reasons I rated this book a 3.5/5.

Overall, I don't think this book is terrible or worthy of controversy, but you can probably skip it in favor of one of the author interviews below. Naomi Kanakia is a joy and learning what went into the book behind the scenes was nice. If you do choose to read We Are Totally Normal, keep in mind that it was never intended to be a sweet romance.

Written Interview: https://thenerddaily.com/rahul-kanakia-author-interview/

Video Interview: https://itgetsbetter.org/blog/kanakia/

[inkspitblog]

Arc Review: Never a Hero - Vaness Len

Check out my most recent review: Never a Hero by Vanessa Len

[ryllen]

do u know that even the size of the different size of vegetables at another country amazed me because from where i came from they are all smaller and scrawnier

[magicalrary]

Book review: Space Trash Vol. 1 by Jenn

Book review: Space Trash Vol. 1 by Jenn

Genre: YA contemporary romance Published: September, 7 2022 Pages: 96 My rating: ★★★★ SYNOPSIS: In 2115, Earth has been abandoned as a lost cause and mankind has moved on to space colonization. At a decrepit high school on the moon for underprivileged youth, Stab, Yuki and Una are three teenagers who try to keep their boredom and resentment at bay by fighting rival gangs and cliques, hanging…

[unconnectedreads]

TW: SA, Racism, Adoption trauma, Parental Neglect, Drug use, Gore

(If you want clarification about any of these, just let me know. Stay safe)

Anyone who has ever felt the truly magnificent horror of a Furby activating in the middle of the night and talking even after you trapped it in a shoebox and buried it in your closet will have no problem thinking them possessed.

When 6 year old Hannah gets her hands on a Furby of her very own she is overjoyed to find a spirit trapped inside it even if everyone else thinks that he's an imaginary friend.

Botis is unexpectedly charmed by this human child and is facing the delicate balancing act of how much to eveal about his job as a demon of punishment and retribution.

This was a sweet story about growing up and change that had me laughing one moment and sobbing the next.

There's more I want to say about this and I need at least a million people to read it so I have someone to talk about it with.

Rating: 5 🌟 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Kindle Unlimited

[da-shrimping-station]

"all ingredients must be measured properly and according to the recipe" Barbatos

VS

"yea lemme eyeball this" / "no measuring tools? no problem" MC

WHO WILL WIN?

[alinacapellabooks]

HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT! THE TENGU AND THE ANGEL RELEASE DATE!

Hello, hello, dear followers, and all else who are viewing this post! I have some very exciting news for you all! My debut novel, The Tengu And The Angel, will officially be releasing on Kobo, and Amazon, on the tenth of December, 2023, so there'll be plenty of opportunities for you to grab your copy! Oh, but why would you want to grab a copy, you might ask? What's the book about? Those are brilliant questions, my friends, and I'm going to tell you the answers right now!

The Tengu And The Angel is a friends-to-lovers romance about two roommates falling in love, and learning to let go of their pasts. Eighteen year old Kunio Yoshioka has just fled his abusive mother's home in Northampton, and he's journeying up north in search of a new home, and a fresh start in life. He's armed with nothing but his dreams of being a successful artist, and his vivid imagination. He thinks of his new adult self as a tengu; strong, proud, and capable of things his child self could only dream of. Twenty year old Nathaniel seems to have it all; he's gorgeous, he lives in a beautiful apartment in the centre of Newcastle, and he's the owner and founder of Black Rose, a Victorian gothic online boutique. Kunio thinks of him as angel; he's faultlessly polite and kind, and he goes above and beyond to help him when they first meet, even though he doesn't know him. He's also painfully insecure, and he lives under the thumb of his toxic 'best friend', Theo, who uses his mental illness to control him. When Nathaniel takes Kunio in, the two form a close friendship, which slowly blossoms into love. Can the two of them learn to put their pasts behind, and make their relationship work? Get your copy, and find out, in December 2023!

Meet The Characters:

Kunio:

Nathaniel:

[olivias-shelf]

Oh, my heart. I absolutely loved this book.

The highlight for me on this book is the conversations on identity and the pressures of being a child or grandchild of immigrants, where you're just old enough to fully understand the implications of the sacrifices made and how you often feel like you have to repay that sacrifice with your own success, whatever that looks like. I also enjoyed the diverse perspectives on how they feel about China based on their own experiences.

I liked the way that this book addresses the idea of museums who have stolen artifacts from years of imperialism and colonialism, giving a spotlight on the sticky origins of collections and the reluctance to return them back to cultures. I especially loved the phrase that gets brought up many times throughout the novel to describe how the affected cultures feel about it.

And the heists themselves! I do like how realistic they were for a bunch of college aged people, and how each one goes very differently. I appreciate how much improvision often had to happen.

I liked the relationships between our crew - each one had complications even if they hadn't interacted before being brought together. And the relationships between people who had pre-existing relationships before the events of the book added layers of complexity in how they'd often dance around each other. Personally, I enjoyed the full arc between Irene and Alex, although it was incredibly frustrating at times when it got in the way of their working together nicely in the group.

I saw that this book is set to be adapted for the screen and the book definitely reads in a way where I could see it translating nicely, especially the final story arc. I can't wait to watch it.

This book is definitely joining my favorites.

A thank you to PENGUIN GROUP Dutton, Tiny Reparations Books, and NetGalley for the ARC.

[1-siracha]

asian! mc: ... do i take my shoes off??

lucifer: no, we keep our shoes on in the house of lamentation

asian! mc: no wonder this place is called the house of lamentation what the fuck is wrong with you

[scholar-of-yemdresh]

The TERF brigade in the BES fandom makes my skin itch. God forbid you interpret Mizu as transmasc. Like having a different interpretation of the character is somehow taking anything away from cis women. Musty asses already castigated any HCing Mulan as transmasc are you not tired of harassing asian transmascs by now???

Anyway instead of getting cis "people" in your mentions crying about the "evil [white*] transes taking away wombmyn stories". Protect your peace and stan a book series that's got a transmasc asian(fantasy Korean not Japanese) swordsman as one of the main characters, his name is Keun-ju and he's so pookie ☺.

It's called The Crimson Empire trilogy by Alex Marshall. It's a batshit heavy metal dark fantasy trilogy with pretty much every queer imaginable. Also If you can handle the gore/violence of BES then this shouldn't be an issue. The Main character(there are a lot of important characters) is a scarred up brawny bi woman who's in her late 50s/early 60s.

Oh and all those ot3 Mizu/Akemi/Taigen shippers I see you...so Keun-ju is bi and gets into a throuple with a feisty(Low key a dumbass tbh 💀) princess(who's his childhood friend and he's her bodyguard because I know yall eat up that shi) AND a cis guy who he starts out with a pseudo antagonistic/rivalry relationship.

Caveat unlike BES these three do start off the series as teens (16-17/18) but by the end they're all firmly adults.

*Totally ignoring the trans POC specifically the East asian trans people because "transness is a taint forced by white people" or some other bullshit. And it make it easier for the TERFs to pretend they're fighting the "oppressor" if they act like trans poc calling them out on their shit don't exist.

[sadlynotthevoid]

Jason Todd is like the MCs of those (a lot of them chinese) asian novels that start like:

"My father let me aside, my older brother turned his back on me, even my dearest [X family member/friend] left. At the end, I was alone. Nothing was left for me.

Just when I died I found out that my life was a novel and I was a cannon fodder— a step stone for the protagonist, [X person he didn't get along with and got everything he wanted]"

It's just that he doesn't know it yet. But he meets all the requirements otherwise.

-Terrible sad backstory.

-Kept forgiving the people who actually gives zero fucks about him.

-When someone (of the people who would fit the important character roles in the inside novel) treated him "well", most of the time is because they want something of him.

-A few good friends who either die before him or would mourn him after his inside-novel death. (Usually one of the regrets of the real novel mc is not listening to them/spending more time/"letting" they die).

-Bad reputation between the inside-novel characters (sometimes it can also be an overall bad reputation, specially if the mc is famous or it's a showbiz story).

-Inexplicable Piss Poor Luck.

-Ends alone no matter what he tries (always before returning back in time).

-Possible DNA drama.

-A mother figure that loves him, whom probably he was separated from by the narrative (death if she was already part of his life, like Catherine, kidnapping/disaparition if it would be an unknown biological mom— not Sheila, obvs—, or other plots/assholes if is a mother figure like in his adult life).

-The father mentioned in the description has a lot of power (AKA, Bruce).

[pjclub]